Golden Montana Sunlight

Normally a photographer must account for the sun's position when composing a photograph.A basic rule or guideline says to keep the sun from directly shining into or across the lens. That is why lens hoods were invented in the first place:  they keep the sunlight from hitting the lens. Another rule, the most famous one, is the rule of thirds.  That states that the main subject of the photograph should be about one-third  and from the top and one-third in from the side of the photograph.

I normally try to follow these rules but not on this occasion.

On this afternoon  the position of the valley and the summer sun were such that I had to shoot with the sun in the upper corner of the lens to capture the golden moment.  The light is literally captured in spots of gold coming across the photograph in a diagonal from the upper left to the lower right.  Is that a flaw?  Some would say "yes" but breaking the rules works for me here because the light just electrifies the summer grass and purple lupine flowers.  I call this photograph "Land of Love".

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